History WesternAnimation / TheFlintstones

** The show in its original run did not feature its famous "Meet the Flintstones" theme song until the third season. Instead, it used an instrumental piece of music that sounded very much like the theme from the concurrent ''WesternAnimation/TheBugsBunnyRoadRunnerShow''. Which may explain why for decades the syndicated version of the series transplanted the later theme song. Creator/{{Boomerang}} reruns include the restored first and second season title sequences.

* LaughTrack: As was typical of 60's-era Hanna-Barbera. Notably edited out in the syndicated airings on Creator/{{Boomerang}}, and also absent from ''The Man Called Flintstone'', which made it a surreal viewing experience for those used to watching the show with canned laughter, but justified since it was a theatrical film.

* StonePunk: You can't miss this, it's all over the place. ''The Flintstones'' is arguably the most famous example.

* TookALevelInKindness: Barney wasn't quite as friendly in the earlier seasons, like a number of other things on the show, he softened affter the birth of Pebbles.

-->-- "'''Meet the Flintstones'''", the theme used for seasons 3-6[[note]]The first two seasons used an instrumental theme[[/note]].

** An early one happens in a season 3 episode, where Fred loses his family's picnic basket. Cue '''WesternAnimation/{{Yogi Bear}}'''.

** Dino's color in the first two seasons was inconsistent. In the original theme, he was blue. In several episodes in season 1, it was pinkish. In "The Long, Long Weekend", he is red and has a tuft of hair. It wouldn't be until late season 2 where it would settle on purple.

* TimeMachine: Besides ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsonsMeetTheFlintstones'', a season 5 episode of the original series has the Flintstones and Rubbles stepping into one of these at the Bedrock World's Fair and traveling to the future to encounter several {{Historical Domain Character}}s (including [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire Emperor Nero]], Myth/KingArthur, UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus, and Creator/BenjaminFranklin) before ending up at the ''New York'' World's Fair of 1964!

* BellyDancer: In a ''[[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Flintstone Comedy Hour]]'' episode called "Sands of the Saharastone", Wilma and Betty are kidnapped by men of an unknown sheik/sultan, who treat them comfortably before revealing their true roles as the latest additions of the sheik's harem. Blissfully unaware, the two ladies feel so relaxed in their situation that they decide to dance for their captors. Fred and Barney see this, and attempt to break into the tent disguised as two other dancers, quickly leading to hi-jinks.

'''Fred:''' ''([[EveryEpisodeEnding banging on the door after getting locked out by Baby Puss]])'' [[SayMyName WIIIILMAAAAA!!]]

->'''Fred:''' ''([[EveryEpisodeEnding banging on the door after getting locked out by Baby Puss]])'' [[SayMyName WIIIILMAAAAA!!]]

They're a page right out of history!\\
Someday... maybe Fred will win the fight,\\

We'll have a'' '''''gay ol' time!!'''''
->'''Fred''': (''[[EveryEpisodeEnding banging on the door after getting locked out by the cat]]'') "''WIIIILMAAAAA!!''"

->'''Fred Flintstone''' ''(hearing the quitting time bird)'' YABBA-DABBA-DOO!\\

They're a page right out of history!\\

->'''Fred Flintstone''': (''hearing the quitting time bird'') "''YABBA-DABBA-DOO!''"
-> ''Flintstones! Meet the Flintstones!\\

* AccidentalBid: In "Divided We Sail," Barney fills in for stage-frightened Fred on the game show "The Prize is Priced" (a mock-up of The Price Is Right, which back then was a modified auction) where the contestants are bidding on a fishing pole. When it's Barney's turn to bid, he quips "Well, I'll just put my two cents in," which gets recorded on his tote screen as a bid of two cents. He actually wins and gets the bonus prize attached to it: a houseboat.

->'''Fred''': (''[[EveryEpisodeEnding after getting locked out by the cat]]'') "''WIIIILMAAAAA!!''"

->'''Fred''': (''[[OnceAnEpisode after getting locked out by the cat]]'') "''WIIIILMAAAAA!!''"

->'''Fred Flintstone''': (''upon hearing the quitting time bird'') "''YABBA-DABBA-DOO!''"

->'''Fred Flintstone''': "''YABBA-DABBA-DOO!''"

->'''Fred''': "''WIIIILMAAAAA!!''"

The original series, which aired for six seasons (1960–66) on Creator/{{ABC}}, was the most successful prime-time animated show ever until ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' debuted in 1989. The latter broke the former's record with the Season 8 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E14TheItchyAndScratchyAndPoochieShow The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show]]" and for syndicated reruns, the opening CouchGag has the Simpsons finding the Flintstones already sitting in their living room. ''The Flintstones'' was also the first animated sitcom to be nominated for a [[MediaNotes/EmmyAward Primetime Emmy]], which opened the door for a lot of animated sitcoms (mostly ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'') to have the same opportunity. The show was also the first to have an animated character (Wilma) be ''openly pregnant''. Of course this was probably the result of something else that no other TV show since about 1948 had done: Wilma and Fred were shown ''sleeping in the same bed, together.''

The most famous and beloved of Creator/HannaBarbera's cartoons that isn't ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'', this one was set in the Stone Age -- [[TheThemeParkVersion sort of]] -- and based about half its humor on [[FlintstoneTheming prehistoric versions of modern technology and culture]]. Usually an animal was shown rigged to perform some menial task, e.g. a baby mammoth used as a vacuum cleaner, a parrot used as a recording device, etc. The animal then usually makes an AsideComment about their lot in life.[[note]]Said comment is usually either a bad pun or some variation on the phrase "It's a living!"[[/note]]

The original series, which aired for six seasons (1960–66) on Creator/{{ABC}}, was the most successful prime-time animated show ever until ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' debuted in 1989. The latter broke the former's record with the Season 8 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E14TheItchyAndScratchyAndPoochieShow The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show]]" and for syndicated reruns, the opening CouchGag has the Simpsons finding the Flintstones already sitting in their living room. ''The Flintstones'' was also the first animated sitcom to be nominated for a [[UsefulNotes/EmmyAward Primetime Emmy]], which opened the door for a lot of animated sitcoms (mostly ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'') to have the same opportunity. The show was also the first to have an animated character (Wilma) be ''openly pregnant''. Of course this was probably the result of something else that no other TV show since about 1948 had done: Wilma and Fred were shown ''sleeping in the same bed, together.''

Like many very popular shows from the 1960s and '70s, ''The Flintstones'' just [[LongRunners would not die]]. The original series has continued in syndicated reruns for decades, and its characters have lived on in any number of subsequent forms, from Saturday morning cartoons featuring teenaged versions of Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles (the latter voiced by Creator/SallyStruthers) through a pair of live-action movies, all the way to a breakfast cereal which is still marketed in the early 21st century (and which is the occasion for continuous ''new'' Flintstones animation), plus the chewable vitamins. The year 2016 in particular saw a resurgence of the franchise in multiple media: first, a Chinese bootleg of the UsefulNotes/{{NES}} game ''VideoGame/TheFlintstonesTheRescueOfDinoAndHoppy'' received MemeticMutation on the Internet (especially the theme song) thanks to the works of WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} and Music/SiIvaGunner. That game actually received a sequel on the NES, ''[[VideoGame/TheFlintstonesTheSurpriseAtDinosaurPeak The Flintstones: The Surprise At Dinosaur Peak!]]'' Unrelated to both, the series also got the same year a DarkerAndEdgier reboot as [[ComicBook/TheFlintstones comic book]] published by Creator/DCComics.

* MeaningfulName: In TheMovie, the character of Rosetta Stone was so named because the Producers had hoped to get the actress Creator/SharonStone to play her (they ended up with Creator/HalleBerry instead). Which becomes HilariousInHindsight when you consider that in the [[Film/{{Catwoman}} 2004 Catwoman movie]], Halle Berry's ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} fights a villain played by Sharon Stone.

** Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty would this every so often, as well as some of the animals who used as different appliances.